Miércoles 23 de Abril, 2014

Estimadas familias,

I hope you had a good Easter holiday.

          In Spanish class Los Chicos had reason to celebrate. In retrospect, we staged an Easter egg hunt outside, along with the Intermediate class, to look for eggs made not of chocolate or by chickens, but of glass tumbled smooth by the waves and sand in our beloved Océano Pacífico. Yes, these were seaglass eggs handpicked from north coast beaches by our family and hidden at school by my daughter Elena (a.k.a., Señorita Loba), who acted as my assistant.

As you can see, each student proudly displays their seaglass treasure.

          We did have some time for reading. Great translations of Dr. Seuss's work remain on the favorites list - this time it was ¡Yo Puedo Leer con los Ojos Cerrados! (I Can Read with my Eyes Shut!). Scholars also took turns reading Necesito una Ayudita (I need a Liittle Help).

          Celebrations were not over however. It turns out Tuesday was Cordelia's 9th birthday! We were treated by Abuela Loba's timeless family cake recipe, complete with nine candles. Everyone sang the birthday song (in Spanish, of course) and enjoyed a small piece of cake along with a bit of milk.

          Al in all it was a productive and fun session enjoyed by everyone.

Hasta la semana que viene, (Until the coming week,)

Señor Lobo

Miércoles 16 de Abril, 2014

Felices Páscuas, (Happy Easter)

          Espero que el conejito sea generoso con ustedes. (I hope the bunny will be generous with all of you).

          Last Wednesday we began class with a reading of another Dr. Seuss classic: Hay un Mollillo en mi Bolsillo, loosely translated, if you will, as There is a Wocket in my Pocket. Everyone took turns reading the text, and I must say there were a few bumps along the pronunciation road. Vowel sounds were still a challenge to some scholars, as was the silent h.

          Luckily I had just the right exercise in my bag of tricks...A bingo game of sorts - nothing like a little competition - to practice and identify the vowel sounds. We also differentiated between mayúsculas and minúsculas, (capital and lower case letters). The word for bat - murciélago - has a special characteristic. Can you tell what it is? Your children saw it after a few tries.

Es todo por ahora. (That is all for now).

Hasta el próximo Miércoles

Señor Lobo

Miércoles 9 de Abril, 2014

Bienvenidos nuevamente,

          I hope your families had a fun and relaxing Spring Break. I was great to see Los Chicos together once again.

          We started the class with a song we previously learned before moving to a very popular and complex game which utilizes the Spanish deck we used at the beginning of the year. The game of Truco (Trick) is a widely popular card game with both children and adults in many countries. Besides the Wikipedia link above, the children should have in their binders a double sided page indicating some of the basic components of the game. The funnest version is played with four players in teams of two. Partners can send specific signals to their team mates to communicate information - real, or false, to throw off opponents - about their hand. There is very specific vocabulary involved during play and bluffing is strongly encouraged by the rules.

          I brought three decks and the class split up into groups of two or four players, and most scholars insisted on playing until parents arrived. I was impressed by how quickly the children learned the game.

Hasta el próximo Miércoles,

Señor Lobo